Captain America: Civil War is set to have an enormous début weekend in the U.S., with Marvel’s thirteenth movie off to a roaring start with a $75 million haul on its opening day. In the epic, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the once solid team of Avengers splinter into two faction: those opposing surrendering their freedom to become a government-ran asset, and those who believe working for the nation’s leader is the way forward.

One of the newest additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, which is arguably the most accurate and noteworthy depiction of the web-slinger to date. And if you’re wondering how Holland, 19, got the role, the Russos have revealed all about his audition process for Peter Parker.

When Holland, as well as all the other Spidey hopefuls, auditioned for the sought-after role, they were doing so opposite Captain America and Iron Man (Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., respectively). Speaking to EW , Evans recalled how Holland made an instant impact:

“As the scene opens, [the script] says ‘Spider-Man flips in and lands.’ And Tom was really like, ‘Should I do that?’… Marvel doesn’t want to see this kid break his neck, so everyone from [the studio] was like, ‘Don’t! Don’t!’ And Joe just started salivating, ‘Just do it!’ And he did it — and stuck it!”

Though a lot of the crazy stunts in action movies are necessarily achieved using stunt doubles or CGI (since a main actor getting injured can set filming back for weeks), Joe Russo explained that Holland’s athleticism was an important factor in his ability to help bring a character like Spider-Man to life:

“It informs also the performance, too, because when you flip into a scene, you’re out of breath and there’s an energy to it where you’re out of balance going into it,” added Anthony Russo. “And it can change your whole performance. And the person you’re playing opposite.”

“As important as it is to capture the essence of the character on an emotional level, there’s an incredible physicality to these characters. So to see a kid who is a gymnast, and you know you’re going to be digitally mapping to his movements… to have somebody who can move that way, it’s f—ing invaluable… That’s why everybody goes, ‘Well, yeah, we have to see that. If he can do that, that’s a whole other asset that he’s bringing, a whole other dimension that he’s bringing to the part.”

Surely anyone who auditions for a Marvel movie will know that, as well as needing the acting ability, it’ll be a considerable physical challenge too. It’d be great if our new Spider-Man deliberately went all-out to impress with his flips, and it will certainly be interesting to see how Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts works together with Holland, a stunt team and a VFX team to bring Spider-Man’s abilities to life in his next solo movie.

Captain America: Civil War is in theaters now, followed by Doctor Strange – November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 7, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; Captain Marvel – March 8, 2019; Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 – May 3, 2019; and as-yet untitled Marvel movies on July 12, 2019, and on May 1, July 10, and November 6 in 2020.

Source: EW